Water productivity for living aquatic resources in floodplains of Northwestern Bangladesh

Objective: This objective of this study is to measure the productivity of water on the floodplain land in terms of fisheries and living aquatic resources based on two floodplain beels in Bangladesh. Methods: Among two beels, beel Mail is practicing community based fish culture management, and beel Chandpur is open access and improperly managed. The production and market price data of fish, snail, and aquatic plants were collected by direct observation based on 30 samples fishers in the year 2006-07. This study also collected production related water quality data, such as water temperature, pH and Dissolved Oxygen. Results: The water quality data are found within the normal range. Net aggregated water productivity values based on production costs was TK 8016.23 ha-1 and TK 3912.9 ha-1 and based on all cost TK 7160.97 ha-1 and TK 3741.13 ha-1 at beel Mail and beel Chandpur, respectively. The contribution of fish, snails and aquatic resources were 96.50%, 3.10%, and 0.40% of the gross aggregated water produced in beel Mail and 87.85%, 8.38%, and 3.77% in the beel Chandpur. The water productivity values in beel Mail is higher than the beel Chandpur due to the intervention of community based fish culture. Conclusion: The proper management and techniques of harvesting fish through appropriate number of fish fingerlings stocked, good quality of fish fingerlings, size of beel, good fencing and well defined embankment, etc. can help to improve the productivity of water in the beel areas.